Monday, May 22, 2017

So Much Fabulous News...

Hey Everyone,

I apologize for the late post, but so many amazing things happened last week and I couldn't wait any longer to share them with all of you!!

Two weeks ago, our agency informed us about some financial deadlines that were rapidly approaching & we were caught a little off guard. Michael & I knew that the funds would come due, but thought it would be a little later in the process. Thankfully, God has been preparing us for moments like this one. Instead of panicking, we contacted everyone we knew & asked them to pray over our financial situation. Less than 24 hours later, we received an email from our agency stating that we actually had 3-4 weeks to put the funds together instead of a few days! Hallelujah!!! On top of that, some of our family & friends have graciously blessed us & we've already raised over 10 percent of the funds that we need for our first payment! God is so good!!

On May 15th, Michael & I officially accepted the referral for Melvin (10), Marie (8) and Favor (5)!!! WE ARE PARENTS!!! I cannot tell you how excited we are! But that's not all. Less than 24 hours later, I received a message from Michael saying that he just received a job offer! WHAT!?!?! That's right my friends! He starts his new job on June 5th & it's everything we have been praying for! Only a few miles from our home, Michael will get a nice pay bump to help provide for our kiddos and benefits! God is so faithful my friends!! This has been a very long haul with the adoption & Michael's job hunt, but God is bringing it all together & we are so incredibly grateful!!

So what's next...

We need to save, raise or receive grants for the remaining $9,000 that we owe on the first 1/2 of our program fees. While working on that, Michael & I are also putting together our dossier which is a crazy amount of paperwork that our agency needs to submit to the Liberian government, so they can review it & approve us to bring our kiddos home! Once we have been approved, we will receive a court date & an invitation to travel to Liberia to meet our babies! At that point, the other 1/2 of our program fees will be due, but our hope is to receive grants to cover that portion. We will travel to Liberia & have been told to plan for up to 3 weeks in country. Once everything is official, then we can bring our kids home & begin our new lives together! Hallelujah!!! I know explaining it this way makes it sound so easy & quick, but the truth is that we still have months to go in the process! What's so encouraging though is that we have never been this far in the process before!

Here are some areas that we could use prayer for...

God's protection over our children!

For the remaining funds to come together quickly so we can submit our dossier & get in line (so to speak) for our court date.

That we will be able to pull all the pieces of our dossier together within the next few weeks.

And that Michael will be able to get the time off to travel at his new job.

I think that's it for now my friends. Time for this girl to get to bed!

Thank you all so much for your unwavering support & prayers! They have meant the world to us! Please keep them coming as things continue to come together!